- Joined
- Dec 19, 2002
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A member PM me for my ideas on rifle selection. Rather than PM him back, I thought our members would enjoy some of my ramblings.
The primary question concerned which of three guns I would choose and why. The three guns involved are the AR-180b, AR-15 and the DPMS Southpaw AR. Each gun has its advantages and disadvantages but first some digression.
Years ago I read Frank Churchwald's book, "The Systems Approach." Churchwald described a methodology by which the best decision could be made given the information and resources available at the time. It entails identifying the goals that were sought. Second was to identify all the resources that are available. The third was to identify all the available alternatives. Finally, one examined each of the alternatives with respects to the resources that it would use and the expected outcome. Whether a benefit-cost or cost-benefit or any other criteria was used, the selection was then made.
So, it behooves one to ask oneself what the mission of the rifle is? Are we seeking a casual plinker? A tack driving target gun? Self defense? An item for collecting? Since the goals are unknown to me, let's examine each of the firearms in turn.
AR-180B. A brainchild of Eugene Stoner. Good gun made better by its adaptation to the AR-15/M-16 magazine. If it's true to the original, you can make the internal parts using a saw, a file and a drill. That's pretty handy if times gets hard or when the mail service is on strike. Negatives: not as versatile as the AR-15. You can't buy uppers as readily and there's no cottage industry to serve your whim of the moment. There's also less tools out there for the gun (not that you need a whole lot anyway).
AR-15. Another Stoner creation. Very versatile as you can swap uppers to convert it from one type of gun to another. It's the "home weapon system" for the civilian market. You can start the morning shooting varmints with that 24" stainless target barrel. By mid morning when all the critters are gone, you change uppers by pushing two pins and voila, you have a 16" bbl gun for the 3 gun match at SoF. Now that you've ran out of 223, you insert a 22 rimfire adapter and plink away for pennies (better to have a dedicated 22 LR upper since the .224 bore is too big for the 22 LR). Now, for the afternoon, you change the upper again and now you can have a pistol caliber carbine for sheer plinking pleasure.
Southpaw DPMS AR. You can do much the same with the DPMS Southpaw AR. It may even be more collectible as I suspect there aren't very many of them out there. If you go this route, you'll probably pay more for it than you would a right handed gun. Also consider buying a spare left handed bolt (everything else is the same as on the regular gun). Really, the right handed gun with the shell deflector works fine with southpaws (I know, the first gun I fired was the M-16A1). The only real difference is in the upper & the bolt and you can easily convert this gun to a right handed gun by using a right handed upper.
About the only real things a southpaw may want for an AR is ambidextrious safety and it almost goes without saying that this will make you just as fast as the right handed person. The other thing that's nice to get is a Norgon left handed magazine release. It's smaller and more discrete than the oversized competition one (forgot the maker). No accidental release by bumping with the Norgon. Now, I wish DPMS would make an upper that can be ejected from both sides. First you smother the guy on your right with ejected brass. This will give your buddy a bench to shoot from. Then you change bolts and smother the fellow on the left. Now your other buddy gets to shoot too. Everybody will love you - except for the two guys who just left.
Barrel lengths was raised. If you've got land as far as the eye can see, you may just want that stainless 24" target barrel. Kill varmints better. If however you're in the Big City like I am (I can almost spit the usable distance of my back yard), you're probably better off with a 16" tube. 16" bbls are easier to use, carry and stow in a vehicle than a 20".
Finally is the issue of muzzle brakes. I personally don't like them. It deflects a lot of noise and muzzle blast away from the front of the muzzle towards the side where they're a lot more perceptible to the shooter. Muzzlebrakes belongs on tanks. Flash hiders belongs on guns. If you can't have a flashider, go without since it's muzzle brakes are comestics. Looks pretty, but are they really practical for what you're doing?
The primary question concerned which of three guns I would choose and why. The three guns involved are the AR-180b, AR-15 and the DPMS Southpaw AR. Each gun has its advantages and disadvantages but first some digression.
Years ago I read Frank Churchwald's book, "The Systems Approach." Churchwald described a methodology by which the best decision could be made given the information and resources available at the time. It entails identifying the goals that were sought. Second was to identify all the resources that are available. The third was to identify all the available alternatives. Finally, one examined each of the alternatives with respects to the resources that it would use and the expected outcome. Whether a benefit-cost or cost-benefit or any other criteria was used, the selection was then made.
So, it behooves one to ask oneself what the mission of the rifle is? Are we seeking a casual plinker? A tack driving target gun? Self defense? An item for collecting? Since the goals are unknown to me, let's examine each of the firearms in turn.
AR-180B. A brainchild of Eugene Stoner. Good gun made better by its adaptation to the AR-15/M-16 magazine. If it's true to the original, you can make the internal parts using a saw, a file and a drill. That's pretty handy if times gets hard or when the mail service is on strike. Negatives: not as versatile as the AR-15. You can't buy uppers as readily and there's no cottage industry to serve your whim of the moment. There's also less tools out there for the gun (not that you need a whole lot anyway).
AR-15. Another Stoner creation. Very versatile as you can swap uppers to convert it from one type of gun to another. It's the "home weapon system" for the civilian market. You can start the morning shooting varmints with that 24" stainless target barrel. By mid morning when all the critters are gone, you change uppers by pushing two pins and voila, you have a 16" bbl gun for the 3 gun match at SoF. Now that you've ran out of 223, you insert a 22 rimfire adapter and plink away for pennies (better to have a dedicated 22 LR upper since the .224 bore is too big for the 22 LR). Now, for the afternoon, you change the upper again and now you can have a pistol caliber carbine for sheer plinking pleasure.
Southpaw DPMS AR. You can do much the same with the DPMS Southpaw AR. It may even be more collectible as I suspect there aren't very many of them out there. If you go this route, you'll probably pay more for it than you would a right handed gun. Also consider buying a spare left handed bolt (everything else is the same as on the regular gun). Really, the right handed gun with the shell deflector works fine with southpaws (I know, the first gun I fired was the M-16A1). The only real difference is in the upper & the bolt and you can easily convert this gun to a right handed gun by using a right handed upper.
About the only real things a southpaw may want for an AR is ambidextrious safety and it almost goes without saying that this will make you just as fast as the right handed person. The other thing that's nice to get is a Norgon left handed magazine release. It's smaller and more discrete than the oversized competition one (forgot the maker). No accidental release by bumping with the Norgon. Now, I wish DPMS would make an upper that can be ejected from both sides. First you smother the guy on your right with ejected brass. This will give your buddy a bench to shoot from. Then you change bolts and smother the fellow on the left. Now your other buddy gets to shoot too. Everybody will love you - except for the two guys who just left.
Barrel lengths was raised. If you've got land as far as the eye can see, you may just want that stainless 24" target barrel. Kill varmints better. If however you're in the Big City like I am (I can almost spit the usable distance of my back yard), you're probably better off with a 16" tube. 16" bbls are easier to use, carry and stow in a vehicle than a 20".
Finally is the issue of muzzle brakes. I personally don't like them. It deflects a lot of noise and muzzle blast away from the front of the muzzle towards the side where they're a lot more perceptible to the shooter. Muzzlebrakes belongs on tanks. Flash hiders belongs on guns. If you can't have a flashider, go without since it's muzzle brakes are comestics. Looks pretty, but are they really practical for what you're doing?
